What does this mean? Will I see the contents of these posts again after the migration, or simply they are broken? If the latter, I must seriously consider moving to some other blog platform. Soup is too unreliable…

July072018

I’m surprised to see amazing number of people sharing the tweets about Japanese people’s behavior. I’m glad, of course, but in today’s Japan some right-wing elements often boast arrogantly about virtue of Japan; after the 2011 earthquake, I saw Japanese Tumblr users sharing a post that expressed strong contempt for Koreans, comparing their way of behavior at a time of disaster with the Japanese one. I hope people in Japan react to the praise from overseas with a humble attitude - most people will do so, though.

I remember seeing it for the first time in the movie Castaway on the Moon (김씨 표류기). It looked so mouthwateringly appetising... I had to try it. And I did. But somehow the taste didn't meet my (a bit bloated) expectations and that made me sort of disappointed. I'm very curious about non-instant version, I'll have to try it too.

As Europe's latest copyright proposal heads to a critical vote on June 20-21, more than 70 Internet and computing luminaries have spoken out against a dangerous provision, Article 13, that would require Internet platforms to automatically filter uploaded content. The group, which includes Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the Mozilla Project Mitchell Baker, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, cryptography expert Bruce Schneier, and net neutrality expert Tim Wu, wrote in a joint letter that was released today:

By requiring Internet platforms to perform automatic filtering all of the content that their users upload, Article 13 takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet, from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users.

The prospects for the elimination of Article 13 have continued to worsen. Until late last month, there was the hope that that Member States (represented by the Council of the European Union) would find a compromise. Instead, their final negotiating mandate doubled down on it.

The last hope for defeating the proposal now lies with the European Parliament. On June 20-21 the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee will vote on the proposal. If it votes against upload filtering, the fight can continue in the Parliament's subsequent negotiations with the Council and the European Commission. If not, then automatic filtering of all uploaded content may become a mandatory requirement for all user content platforms that serve European users. Although this will pose little impediment to the largest platforms such as YouTube, which already uses its Content ID system to filter content, the law will create an expensive barrier to entry for smaller platforms and startups, which may choose to establish or move their operations overseas in order to avoid the European law.

For those platforms that do establish upload filtering, users will find that their contributions—including video, audio, text, and even source code—will be monitored and potentially blocked if the automated system detects what it believes to be a copyright infringement. Inevitably, mistakes will happen. There is no way for an automated system to reliably determine when the use of a copyright work falls within a copyright limitation or exception under European law, such as quotation or parody.

Moreover, because these exceptions are not consistent across Europe, and because there is no broad fair use right as in the United States, many harmless uses of copyright works in memes, mashups, and remixes probably are technically infringing even if no reasonable copyright owner would object. If an automated system monitors and filters out these technical infringements, then the permissible scope of freedom of expression in Europe will be radically curtailed, even without the need for any substantive changes in copyright law.

The upload filtering proposal stems from a misunderstanding about the purpose of copyright. Copyright isn't designed to compensate creators for each and every use of their works. It is meant to incentivize creators as part of an effort to promote the public interest in innovation and expression. But that public interest isn't served unless there are limitations on copyright that allow new generations to build and comment on the previous contributions. Those limitations are both legal, like fair dealing, and practical, like the zone of tolerance for harmless uses. Automated upload filtering will undermine both.

The authors of today's letter write:

We support the consideration of measures that would improve the ability for creators to receive fair remuneration for the use of their works online. But we cannot support Article 13, which would mandate Internet platforms to embed an automated infrastructure for monitoring and censorship deep into their networks. For the sake of the Internet’s future, we urge you to vote for the deletion of this proposal.

What began as a bad idea offered up to copyright lobbyists as a solution to an imaginary "value gap" has now become an outright crisis for future of the Internet as we know it. Indeed, if those who created and sustain the operation of the Internet recognize the scale of this threat, we should all be sitting up and taking notice.

If you live in Europe or have European friends or family, now could be your last opportunity to avert the upload filter. Please take action by clicking the button below, which will take you to a campaign website where you can phone, email, or Tweet at your representatives, urging them to stop this threat to the global Internet before it's too late.

March242018

His mention to Japan is inaccurate and misleading. Japan’s premodern marriage system is different from the Islamic one under the sharia - the official wife was only one, but keeping multiple secondary wives was allowed. The legal status of the latter was weaker than the former. In the Meiji Era, such a practice was delegitimized and monogamy was established with the introduction of the western-style civil code. The Imperial Household also abolished the traditional system in the Taisho Era.

Many Muslims try to defend Prophet Muhammad against the pedophilia allegation with interpretations of Quran and Hadith. I don’t know whether their argument is historically correct; but anyway, it’s a fact that there is a contradiction between what they say and the practice - why can they claim Islam respects women’s rights, when they praise a man with 22 wives as God’s holy messenger?

March192018

“Prohibiting guns may reduce mass shootings but not mass murders.
Countries in which assault rifles were banned (e.g. Australia) faced a
dramatic increase in arson and truck attacks. Prohibiting guns is
fighting symptoms but not the cause - which is level 1 thinking.”

1) This enabled people to reconstruct the country after the destruction of WWII. I think many of Japan’s technology giants, e.g. Sony and Panasonic, were developed by people of tech otaku.

2) Since I started viewing photos from various food cultures on the Internet, I’ve always felt - what an odd dish we’re eating in Japan! But this is our tradition anyway. Fortunately, many people overseas seem to love Japanese cuisine for many reasons.

3) From a stereotyped notion about Japan, people may say the essence of our culture is so-called bushido; but there was a time of aristocratic rule before entering the era of bushi. A lot of female writers and/or poets appeared during this period. My favorite literary work of this time is Ise Monogatari （伊勢物語）, a collection of short love stories with waka poems. Every time I read these stories, I think of a deep solitude shared among readers historically through the work - it may be hard to understand for foreign readers, though. Reading Ise Monogatari, I hear in my imagination some of Leonard Cohen’s songs.

To tell the truth, I was aware of your message but didn’t reply because I wanted to give a good answer to your comment on “mated” in your previous reaction. Once I tried but the text got longer and longer and lost the point. Now I simply want to raise a question - do you know the Japanese word konkatsu （婚活） ? Many of women and men in this country are searching for a marriage partner with the help of match-making companies. For a brief summary, see this article. Further, here.

I guess the movement was originally inspired by Speed Dating in the West. Anyway, I don’t like this phenomenon because people strongly want marriage status recognized by society, not soulmate. Some people in Japan’s media criticize the tendency too.